Wednesday, May 31, 2006

My dad's brother, Josh, likes to rodeo. This picture is from the late '60s after Josh broke his pelvis--probably in a bulldogging event. He was North Dakota State champion two years in a row. I think he broke a leg in the '70's when a horse rolled on him. He cut off the cast, and then broke it again. After that he mainly team roped.

Josh has been team roping for almost forty years now. Two days ago his foot slipped out of the stirrup and he parted ways with his horse--he broke his arm and pelvis. He claims to be in good spirits (could be the morphine speaking). Josh has always been a tough, athletic, beer drinking cowboy. A couple years ago he had a quadruple-bypass heart surgery. He recovered from that pretty good, too.

Damn, Josh. Don't let the good times kill ya!

I've got a lot of admiration for Uncle Josh. Besides being a good athlete, he's also a great rhythm guitar player and has an incredibly sweet voice. A mix of Elvis and Johnny Mathis.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does your Uncle Josh live near you? If so, the 2 of you should hook up and write/play a few songs together. It would be interesting the hear the both of you, it would be a healing process for him while he is laid up.
Take care Sandman!

Chris Sand said...

Josh lives a days' drive south in South Dakota. Josh's son, Kirby, plays guitar, too. And Josh's daughter, Jenny, plays harmonica. Kirby's wife, Megan, is an opera singer. Josh's 1st cousin--also named Kirby, and Kirby's brother, Brad, are great blue grass pickers. They're more up to Josh's level. I still haven't learned how to tune my guitar.

Anonymous said...

"I still haven't learned how to tune my guitar"

That is adorable!

Anonymous said...

If you don't know how to tune yet, that means that maybe one day, you when you are all grown up like Uncle Josh, you will be rockin'!